Does SolarWinds Touch Background Intelligence Transfer Service?

rickas27

Does anyone know if SolarWinds would cause the Windows Background intelligence Transfer Service (BITS) to switch from Automatic startup to On-Demand startup and back?

mr.castaneda

Hi @rickas27,

No, the SolarWinds Platform (and its agents) does not modify or toggle the startup type of the Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). SolarWinds uses its own agent communication channels and polling jobs (over dedicated TCP/HTTPS ports) and does not manage or alter core Windows service configurations out of the box.

A few things that are much more likely causing this behavior:

1. Native Windows OS / Windows Update behavior: In modern Windows versions (Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2016+), BITS is configured by default to Manual (Trigger Start). When Windows Update, WSUS, or another service initiates a download job, BITS is triggered. Once idle, or after certain system maintenance tasks run, Windows will often ensure it stays set to Manual / Trigger Start even if someone manually changed it to Automatic.
2. Group Policy or Security Baselines: If a GPO or local security baseline is enforcing a specific service state, it may be fighting with an OS maintenance task or a conflicting policy.
3. Custom SAM Alert / Remediation Actions: If you're running Server & Application Monitor (SAM), check whether anyone configured an alert action or remediation script (e.g., PowerShell / sc.exe) on a BITS monitoring component that restarts or alters service parameters.

Tip for tracking it down: Check the Windows Event Viewer under Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > Bits-Client > Operational, as well as the System log (look for Event ID 7040, which logs service startup type changes and the user/process that initiated the change). That should pinpoint exactly what’s flipping the switch.

Hope this helps!